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{
    "id": 808350,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/808350/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 279,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kiharu, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Samson Nyoro",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13370,
        "legal_name": "Samson Ndindi Nyoro",
        "slug": "samson-ndindi-nyoro"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for the chance to contribute. From the outset, I support the amendments. With regard to stamp duty, as a young person, I am very happy that, progressively, many of the issues we are passing here are youth-based. I say so because a majority of young people in this country do not own homes and therefore exempting duty to the first time owners goes a long way to giving the youth of this country, Government support when it comes to home ownership. I also have to say that I am very happy to have the inclusion of the private quantity surveyors. They will now be eligible to conduct evaluations of the properties. About a month ago, I got a delegation of quantity surveyors requesting me to initiate the process of amendment of the law that pertains to valuation. I had written to the Speaker seeking to amend the law that pertains to the valuation of our properties. This will hasten the process of home ownership and cut down the process and the time lags that are usually found in the process. On the income tax laws, I am elated because clearly our country is descending into very deep abyss when it comes to gambling. Most of the young people in our constituencies nowadays engage in the kind of gambling that is worrying. We are instituting the income on the winnings from gambling at about 25 per cent. I would actually seek that progressively we bring this percentage higher. We cannot have a country where people engage in activities where they earn money without engaging in any kind of production. Gambling is one of those vices. Gambling has also seen insecurity rising in our villages and estates. When you gamble what you have and it goes to these gambling and betting companies, you have to keep on gambling because it is very addictive. You will want to have more money to put on the same cycle. Since you are not engaged in any kind of production, the easier way it to engage in crime to get these monies. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, having contributed on the supply side and the revenue side of the money that the Government raises, I am sure the country’s biggest worry is on the expenditure side. We can collect as much money as possible, but if this money gets so many loopholes on where it disappears, then overtaxing the Kenyan people will be futile. One of the issues we must deal with as we collect more money is the issue of debts. Once you collect money, it is stolen then the country goes to other avenues of raising money which is debt to bridge the gap. As I stand here today, Kenya is number five in terms of the most indebted countries in Africa. We are now in the same bracket of countries like Mozambique which is around 115 per cent debt to GDP ratio. Egypt is at 96 per cent and Gabon is at seven per cent. Kenya is at 60 per cent and our appetite is still growing day by day. On corruption, we have to bite the bullet. We cannot keep on talking about the same thing over and over again. It will interest the Kenyan people and even this House that personally as a Member of Parliament I have already written to the Speaker and he has given me enough personnel to draft changes in the laws that fight corruption and graft in this country. One of the things that we are going to institute is something that happened in China on Monday of a gentleman called Zhang. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}